Chapter 2 Why Is There So Much Interest in Outcome- Based Reforms? Ithough examples of what we now A: Outcome-Based Education have een around for. centuries and abound in today’s world, wide spread interest in and advocacy of OBE in schools is a phenomenon of the ‘90s, and promises to gain even more momentum in the future. Thanks to the widespread changes in state education reform policies during the past several years and to the extensive media attention they have received, the term “OBE” has become familiar to tens of millions of Americans. 1. Why is there so much interest in Qutcome-Based Education among advocates of major school reforms? who advocate the fundamental reform of our education system find the Many paradigm thinking, and results of OBE systems exciting purposes, premises, principles, for several reasons: «The major changes taking place in our economy and society have placed us squarely in the middle of the Information Age. This complex, technologically dominated, multicultural, constantly changing world demands far higher learning results from schools than they have ever produced. OBE has the inherent potential to meet those demands. Why Is There So Muci* On the other hand, our Industrial Age education system embodies and perpetuates patterns of practice that prevent many students from learning successfully. Its emphasis on the means, WHEN, and HOW of educational programs has forced schools to compromise on theends ‘WHAT, and WHETHER of student learning. OBE offers the Promise of reversing those organizational priorities and patterns. + OBE shares many philosophies and approaches being used to redefine organizational purpose, processes, and effectiveness in the corporate world. The principles of total quality management, re-engineering the organization, systemic change, corporate excellence, and a host of other organizational improvement approaches are all compatible with the philosophies of “all can learn and succeed,” and “continuous improvement” inherent in OBE, + Strong examples of outcome-based practiceabound in our: mostimportant social and economic institutions. Those who are familiar with and have benefitted from OBE’s power and common sense in their personal and professional lives want OBE used in schools as well. + When authentically implemented in a consistent and systematic fashion, OBE lives up to its inherent potential, fostering major improvements in student learning and staff effectiveness in schools and districts of all kinds across the United States. Those who advocate OBE argue that there’s no reason why all schools can't emulate what these pioneering OBE districts have accomplished, + OBE goes beyond the vague symbols, labels, and scores used as indicators of student learning and achievement by the traditional system. Instead, it focuses on and documents the substance of what students have actually learned and can do, and it gives educators, parents, colleges, and future employers a much more accurate picture of students’ capabilities. 2. What are some of the key changes taking place in contemporary society and the economy that are direcily shaping school reforms? ‘Three broad, interrelated sets of pressures are affecting the direction and intensity of school reform initiatives in the 90. ‘They involve, 1) the nature of the Information Age economy and workplace, 2) the changing demographic character of society, and 3) the rate and intensity of change affecting all social and political institutions. Certainly one of the most compelling descriptions ofthe changing face of the global economy and workplace is Alvin Toffler’s 1991 book, Power Shifis. Toffler describes in reat detail the impact that continuously emerging technologies are having on what used to be a fairly stable and predictable economic world. That world of “the steady job” and “lifetime career” seems to be over. In its place has emerged the complex, high- technology, competitive, unpredictable, and globally interdependent marketplace that is demanding constant change, adaptation, learning, innovation and quality from its members. Yesterday's right answers are today’s obsolete solutions, 20 9 Outcome-Based EducationFuturist David Pearce Snyder illustrates the nature of this profound change and its implications for our educational system by pointing out the following: While only about 25 percent of the jobs in the post-World War II economy required the reasonably sophisticated handling of information and data, that number has risen to 75 percent in the ‘90s and is headed for 90 percent by the end of the century. What have traditionally been regarded as “unskilled” and “semi-skilled” jobs now require data manipulation and computer skills. Beyond this press for an information-literate, technologically component workforce is an even greater challenge to the educational system: Today's and tomorrow's workers need to be people with high levels of communication, collaboration, interpersonal, and leadership skills! Why? Because, according to several authors and major studies, the hallmark of the Information Age workplace is adaptable, effective working teams that can collectively discover and solve significant problems and work successfully with others to get their potential solutions implemented. Increasingly employers are putting out a seemingly paradoxical message: Technical expertise must be enhanced dramatically, but technical expertise by itself is not enough. This emphasis on interpersonal skills of all kinds is mirrored in the demographic changes taking place in the United States and Canada. What were regarded 20 years ago as predominantly English-speaking, Anglo societies have become increasingly racially and culturally diverse, thanks to major waves of immigrants from all parts of the world. Consequently, it is common to find the neighborhoods and schools of large cities populated with people representing dozens of different ethnic and home-language backgrounds—all striving to find a niche in the economic, social, and political fabric of their communities. Compounding these intense pressures for technical competence and interpersonal skills is the rate and intensity of change itself—change in virtually all aspects of life and living, Two implications seem clear. First, people who hope to make their way successfully in this Information Age will have to be motivated, adaptable, and capable of continuous, self directed, lifelong learning, Second, today’s schools are being expected to ensure that those skills and orientations are developed in virtually all students—a tall order for an institution designed a century ago to turn a percentage of its students into literate, reliable workers for the Industrial Age. 3. What are the main Industrial Age features of our educational system that are out of sync with today’s Information ‘Age trends and needs? ‘Two major themes stand out, One is about the system, and the other is about its outcomes. The system issues are best illustrated through one of the themes in the 1982 "Why Is There So Much Interest in Outcome Based Reforms? @ 21°runaway best seller In Search of Excellence by Thomas Peters and Robert Waterma In it they identify a key characteristic of organizational “excellence”—something th call “Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties.” The excellent corporati ions they identifi had a common characteristic: They were simultaneously tightly focused avout organizational goals, purposes, and ends—synonyms for the WHAT and WHETHI discussed in Chapter 1—and loosely organized with regard to means, procedures, at People’s roles—synonyms for Chapter I's WHEN and HOW, Peters and waterm found just the opposite to be true of what they labeled bureaucratic organizations: T means, procedures, and roles were tight, but the goals, purposes, and ends were loos We can identify similar patterns in our Industrial Age model of schooling. The the fixed and tight focus is on Programs, time, curriculum, teaching, courses, ai schooling itself—all aspects of the means/procedures/roles syndrome, What is loos defined and highly variable are their ends/purposes/goals counterparts: achieveme standards, performance, learning, criteria, and life respectively. With regard to learning outcomes themselves, there are similar discrepancies. T Industrial Age model emphasizes the learning of specific people at specific points in time. Achievement is define well students can do under those specific, Information Age demands long-term, surriculum content at speci cd and judged according to he constrained conditions for learning. T sustainable performance and self-initiated at self directed continuous learning capabilities, not just specific content and skills f specific tasks. It recognizes that much content becomes quickly obsolete and that ti information base with which people must work is expanding beyond the capability any individual to keep up with and master. As noted earlier, this model emphasiz adaptability, interpersonal competence, and the ability to deal with complex, ope ended issues. 4, What key features of Industrial Age schools inherently constrain learning ee cor ane eeee i= The traditional, Industrial Age model of Components of the Time-Based, schooling operates a self-contained system. That system is composed of a variety of elements and Industrial Age Paradigm _ characteristics that both define what the system Calendar-Defined is and does and reinforce each other's presence Constrained Opportunity in the system. Ten of those components stand Custodial Credentialing out as critical definers and shapers of how the Content Segmentation system operates to limit and constrain the Curriculum Coverage learning opportunities and success of many ‘Gummulstive Aehieyenipat C'lection Categories Contest Learning Comparative Evaluation Cellular Structure students. Those key components of the “Time- Based, Industrial Age Paradigm” are listed in Figure 2.1. 22 © Outcome-Based Education ——~—~SS arCalendar-Defined As the figure suggests, the key characteristic of this paradigm operating is that it is calendar defined. The nine-month calendar and its components determine what virtually all elements of the system are and how long, how often, and when students will be given opportunities to learn what is in the curriculum. If they don't learn successfully within that schedule, they are declared to be poor learners. Attendance, eligibility, grouping patterns, curriculum, instructional delivery, learning opportunities, assessment and reporting, and student advancement and credentialing are all defined and administered in terms of time. Constrained Opportunity Constrained opportunity almost automatically follows because the calendar and schedule place strict limits on the duration and timing of each segment of the educational process. They include: the curriculum structure; opportunities for teachers to teach and students to learn; testing, grading, and reporting student learning (in ink so the grades are permanently); and advancement through the curriculum. All must be done on a fixed schedule, much like the assembly line process of Industrial Age factories. Furthermore, students usually have only one single chance to encounter any learning experience and prove they have “learned” it. The message, intended r not, is: Do it right the first time or suffer the permanent consequences. Custodial Credentialing Custodial credentialing refers directly to the system’s way of awarding credit for courses completed. The term “custodial” means that students must be in attendance for a fixed period of time to receive credit. “Credentialing” means giving a unit of credit toward the completion of graduation requirements. This is often referred to as a “seat- time” system because the amount of time students spend in their seats in a course is tied directly to how much credit they get. A full Carnegie unit requires 120 hours of. sitting; a half credit they get 60. Note that the credit neither documents what students can do nor varies with their performance, Students must simply get a “passing grade” or better to get a Carnegie unit. Content Segmentation Content segmentation is a key characteristic of the curriculum and how it is made available to students. The curriculum structure that has dominated 20 century schooling in the United States was recommended by the Committee in Ten in 1893. It is organized around the separate and clearly distinguished academic disciplines of the university—which are treated as if they were distinct and unrelated—and it is further segmented into nine-month chunks called courses and grade levels. Each chunk or segment takes on a life of its own since each has equal status as far as the custodial credentialing system is concerned. Once a nine-month segment is completed and the student has received credit for it, it becomes part of a permanent record, regardless of what is remembered or forgotten. "Why Is There So Much Interest in Outcome Based Reforms? © 23-Curriculum Coverage ¢ Curriculum coverage is the dominant responsibility teachers carry in the system. Their role is to be sure that the content for each curriculum segment is covered or presented to each class within the calendar-defined constraints of the system. This compels teachers to get through the curriculum in the time allowed (WHEN and HOW), regardless of how individual students might do with the material (WHAT and WHETHER). This pressure to cover an expanding body of content within the same time structure that existed a century ago leaves teachers in a no-win bind. Superficial coverage ensures superficial learning, whilein-depth treatment leads to missing content. Students lose out either way. Cumulative Achievement Cumulative achievement represents the essence of this configuration of components since it defines what the system means be learning and achievement and how it treats them in practice. Two things distinguish this approach to learning and achievement. First, everything students do, regardless of its substance or nature, ultimately is translated into numbers and percentages, which are kept in a student's permanent record. These numeric “symbols” are then endlessly accumulated and averaged together, as if they represent equivalent things—which they clearly do not. Second, once number is entered into the record it remains there permanently and continues to be part of the ultimate average. This means any students who start behind or who make mistakes can never actually catch up with the faster starters and “perfect” performers because every mistake remains a part of their accumulated record and average and is permanently held against them—no matter how much or how well they ultimately learn, perform, or improve. C'lection Categories The term “C'lection Categories” is a play on words used to maintain the “C” alliteration of the other nine components. C'lection simply means selection—which we regard as the core purpose of this Industrial Age system. The process of sorting and selecting students on the basis of their perceived ability and early achievement translates over time into totally different streams of learning, achievement, and opportunity. It manifests itself first in the “three reading groups” in first grades and continues, however subtly, throughout the elementary years until virtually the same reading group students end up in the college prep, general, and vocational program tracks in high school. This set of practices rests on the premise that not all students can learn the most challenging things in the curriculum, therefore they need lower level challenges and experiences to go with their lower abilities and learning rates. This guarantees that they will fall farther and farther behind and emerge from school destined for very different futures than the “advanced” students. ~'24 2 Outcome-Based EducationContest Learning One of the surest ways of creating c'lection categories is to set up a system of contest learning in the classroom and school. Unfortunately, contests exist between teachers and students, and between students and. students, Why? Because well- meaning educators and policymakers decided a century ago that teachers should only have a limited supply of good grades to dispense because standards of excellence are inherently relative and comparative. This, by definition, forces students who want those symbols of good learning to compete with each other to receive them. The overall distribution of winners and losers is related to a faculty or district’s devotion to what is called “the bell curve”. Students who are motivated to receive high grades, the symbols of learning success, must compete with others on an individual level. In this competitive environment of learning winners and losers, collaboration is defined ‘as unfair. Comparative Evaluation To ensure some form of contest that allows for student selection, the Industrial Age Paradigm uses Leesa a) a system of comparative evaluation standards, At its core are principles of interpersonal comparison and ranking. Evaluation focuses on “better than /worse than,” “higher than/lower than,” and “win/lose” comparisons among students on many different kinds of factors, all of which show up as differences in student performance records, no matter how slight. When these small differences are then turned into the ultimate comparison, class rank, even greater appearances of differences can result appearances that greatly exaggerate Students who finished a particular course with a 97 average got a D, those who finished with a 98 average got a C, those who finished with a 99 average got a B, and those who got perfect 100 averages got an A. Ee actual differences in learning and performance but make lection categories much easier to create and justify. This true worst-case exam campus in 1992: Students who finished a particular got aD, those who finished with a 98 got a C, those aB, and those who got perfect 100 averages got an A. Why Is There So Much Interest in Outcome: Based Reforms? ple occurred ona U.S. university course with a 97 percent average Who finished with a 99 average gotCellular Structure This tenth component of the time-based organizational structures—how the Paradigm relates mainly to its cellular protection from outside interference, itcompels individual teachers to be all things to all students, quickly exposes their limit ations to students, and confines students learning to what a particular teacher knows and can do. As they work together and reinforce each other systematically, these 10 components make it impossible for many students to become, and be recognized as, successful learners, 5. What are the outcome-based altern ‘Age paradigm components? These are explicit alternatives to each of the 10 key components of the s Time-Based, Industrial Age paradigm just described. They are listed in Figure 2.2, When viewed as a whole, tatives to these constraining Industrial Components of the Outcome-Based, Information Age Paradigm these 10 alternatives constitute what Outcome-Defined we regard as the Outcome-Based, Expanded Opportunity Information Age Paradigm. As might Performance Credentialing be expected, the constellation of Concept Integration these 10 components dramatically expands both teachers’ and students’ opportunities for achieving genuine success. We will consider them in the order in which they appear. Instructional Coaching Culminating Achievement Inclusionary Success Cooperative Learning Criterion Validation Outcome-Defined Collaborative Structure (rather than Calendar-Defined) As explained in Chapter 1, the outcoi me-based paradigm is defined, focused, and pizanized around exit outcomes, These ultimate culminating demonstrations of ‘earning simultaneously serve as the focal point, mission, fundamental purpose, top priority, bottom line, and starting point for everything else that occurs within thesystem, These things include: designing and developing the curriculum; deliv assessing, reporting, and credentialing student achievement; determini: for student advancement and eventual graduation; strategic and Program: making; recruiting and using personnel; and structuring and using time ig instruction; ing the criteria matic decision and resources, 26 © Ouieome-Based EducationExpanded Opportunity (rather than Constrained Opportunity) All systems of instruction and credentialing have within them conditions that define and affect the opportunities of students to be taught, learn successfully, and demonstrate their learning as a matter of record. Expanding opportunities for students to succeed occurs naturally when educators do not define and limit chances for learning and performing to fixed, prescheduled blocks of time that are the basic structure of our Current system’s Industrial Age delivery: namely, specific hours, days, weeks, reporting periods, semesters, and school years. The term “expanded” means alterable, variable, flexible, and responsive—not simply longer or more often. AS noted in Chapter 1, it pertains to a whole constellation of time factors as well as to the methods, tools, resources, and principles used in instructing and assessing students. Assuring the learning success of all students requires that all of these different aspects of opportunity be expanded and applied well beyond the constraints of the current system. Performance Credentialing (rather than Custodial Credentialing) ‘The term “credentialing” refers to many different components that define or reflect the student’s standing in the system. They include the design and implementation of assessments, evaluation, record-keeping and transcripts, report cards, the awarding of credit or diplomas, and the advancement or graduation of students. By tying the term “performance” to it, we are indicating that all of these components will be defined by and will directly reflect that clear criteria embodied ina system's culminating outcomes. ‘Therefore, to earn a performance credential, students must clearly demonstrate all of the criteria that constitute that outcome—just as they do in earning merit badges in the Scouts. Performance credentials are defined by these criteria, not by calendar dates or time blocks. Concept Integration (rather than Content Segmentation) Gurriculum design and structuring proceed directly from a system's framework of culminating outcomes. In more fully developed outcome-based models, these exit outcomes are likely to take the form of complex performance abilities that require students to integrate, synthesize, and apply a range of diverse content, concepts, and competence to performance tasks. Without question, this will require them to have learning experiences that continually bring this delivery of content, concepts, and competence together and give students both direct experience and support in seeing how they can be integrated and applied. For this to happen, districts need to develop curriculum designs that continuously link content and concepts together, both across subject areas and grade levels, and that ask students to make and demonstrate those linkages on a continuing basis. Why Is There So Much Interest in Outcome-Based Reforms? 0 aInstructional Coaching (rather than Curriculum Coverage) Clearly, Instructional staffs are the key agents for accomplishing OBE’s “success for es. This requires teachers to adopt an OHentation to their work that Theodore ) calls an Instructional Coach, Coaches seek to gain the highest quality of Performance they can get from all their Musicians, actors, debates, or athletes. This onal role requires teachers to mod ctively successful techniques and continuously diagnose and asse: tudent practice and performance, offer frequent feedback, and inter lel a 8s ongoing si Inclusionary Success (rather than C’ Outcome-based s significance because systematically, creatively, a they do, outcome-based "28 9 Outcome-Based EducationCooperative Learning (rather than Contest Learning) When a system is committed to having all ofits students succeed on clearly defined performance standards, it focuses on finding and fostering effective ways for that to happen. Consequently, those who implement OBE work to transform the notion of competition into a reality called “continuous high-level challenge” for all students. In a criterion-based system of standards and expectations, no one has to lose just because others succeed sooner. The reason? Because OBE is essentially a win/win model, and success is not a scarce, fixed commodity. Coaches know that group performance is tied directly to the ability of the weakest member of the group. Smart coaches get everyone info the act of helping everyone else get better so that the performance of everyone is enhanced in the process. When teachers do it, it’s called “peer coaching.” When applied to students, its called cooperative learning. For centuries it’s also been known as teamwork and collaboration. Criterion Validation (rather than Comparative Evaluation) First, a criterion is an essential component of a demonstration or performance. It defines what must be present in the performance; otherwise, the performance is judged to be incomplete, A criterion is stated in substantive language that clearly embodies and defines what the essential performance component is. The components that constitute a merit badge in the Scouts are good examples of criteria. Second, the term “validation” means “confirmation” or “verification.” When combined, these terms define as approach to assessment, evaluation, and credentialing that requires assessors to gather the most accurate and pertinent information possible on a student's performances and to determine whether that information or evidences matches, meets, or exceeds the criteria that define the essential components of the performance. The essence of this approach is to deal directly with the substance of what is being assessed on its own terms, rather than attaching scores, labels, or symbols to it. The performance of other students on the same criteria should have no bearing on the assessment made. This makes the terms “authentic assessment” and criterion validation virtually identical. They both involve validly assessing exactly what the outcome demonstration requires. Collaborative Structure (rather than Cellular Structure) The exit outcomes that drive advanced OBE systems usually involve complex, high- level performances that go beyond the content and skills addressed in individual courses on program areas. These complex abilities, ike communicating and complex problem solving, take years to develop, refine, and apply. They are not something that students acquire or develop in days, weeks, or months while enrolled in particular courses or 8rade levels, Their development depends on the continuing efforts of all teachers in all areas of the curriculum. Hence, all teachers have a stake in helping students achieve the system’s exit outcomes, For that to happen, they must work together to invent and Why Is There So Much Interest in Outcomie-Based Reforma? © 20°implement the learning Performance ability to emerge. Stafis are compelled to build lines of communication and collaboration across traditionally impenetrable content and grade-level boundaries because good ideas, effective strategies, and focused endeavors can, and must, come from everywhere and everyone, As they work together and reinforce each other 5 establish the conditions th: successful learners, S“pétiences and strategies that will allow this kind of complex 'ystematically, these ten components ‘at enable all students to become, and be recognized as, 6. How do these OBE Components relate to the total quality and Feengineering movements in American business? During the past two decades, the corporate world has undergone a profotind transformation in its approach to organization and management that Parallels the educational paradigm shift just described. This transfi formation embodies the shift from an Industrial Age to an Information Age way of defining and operating business enterprises in the volatile and challen, Bing environment described in Toffler’s Power Shifts. The hallmark of this shift isthe soto, of Establishing within the organization the conditions that motivate and empower individuals to use the potential that is within them, If Peters and Waterman's In Search of Excellence can be used as a benchmark, this transformation is simply a decade ahead of what is now happening in education, Among the most widely recognized work and figures in this movement to empower people and transform the organizations in which they work are: * Joel Barker's The Business of Paradigm (1990), + Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People (1989); and Principle Centered Leadership (1990), Michael Hammer and James + Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure + Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline (990) Ofcourse, the legendar; The focus on the potential of all individuals to perform successfully, the emphasis ‘on success for all, the theme of establishing within organizations the conditions that allow and encourage individuals to do their best, the breaking of counterproductive mindsets and organizational Patterns, the defi ing of organizational Purpose as “achieving quality everywhere” the notion of Principle-driven action, an, of organizational flexibility as a means for achieving clearly defined, high quality ends are among the most obvious examples of the direct connection betwee: -n empowering Oa : edt a 300 Outcome-Based Educa ionoutcome-based educational systems and what we might think of as empowering outcome-based corporations. 7. What features of outcome-based models in daily life appeal so strongly to education reformers? ‘The models of outcome-based practice introduced in Figure 1.1 (Chapter 1) have an enormous appeal to education reformers because they illustrate the powerful, commonsense simplicity of OBE. They also reveal a range of possibilities for focusing and organizing instruction that goes beyond the institutionalized constraints of our Industrial Age system described in Figure 2.1. Some of the most inherently appealing features of these everyday examples of outcome-based practice are: Learning results and performance expectations are clearly define ahead of time. Learners know what they are expected to learn, and instructors know what to help them learn. ‘There are no surprises in what is to be learned and what will be assessed. What you see is what you get. If learning is clearly defined and instruction takes the learner's experience, learning style, and learning rate into account, almost anyone can learn anything that is truly essential to his or her success and well-being. Clear standards for being “done” and receiving official certification are tied to consistent, quality accomplishment and performance. Few can learn complex things the first time they try. Continual practice and coaching are essential to the development of significant competence. It makes sense to design curriculum back from where you want your learners to successfully end up. Advancement in learning is tied directly to actual levels of successful performance, not to a fixed schedule. Learners can move through a curriculum successfully at a pace they can handle. Outcome-based performance credentials are like “truth in advertising” They prove what learners can do. How does OBE provide parents and the public with more accurate and meaningful information about student learning and capabilities than do conventional systems? Few issues are as emotionally and politically charged as those dealing with student grades and credentials. This is largely because during the past three decades a person's career/life chances have become increasingly linked to the kind of educational background and credentials he or she has. utcome-based systems offer parents and the public two things: 1) a major enhancement of opportunities for students to learn ‘Why Is There So Much Interest in Outcome-Based Reforms? 9 31~the things that would qualify them for admission to advanced levels of education and their chances of being successful once they are there, and 2) credentials and transcripts that accurately document what they can successfully do when they exit the K-12 system. Grades as Vague Symbols of Achievement While reformers embrace both these reasons, the public generally finds them confusing. For several generations, Americans have been immersed in a particular way of assessing, labeling, and credentialing student achievement, which OBE practice regards as vague and misleading. The issues come down to a choice between numbers and symbols versus substance and criteria, From an outcome-based perspective the heart of the dilemma of how to define and report student achievement comes down to the following paradox: As substance, grades mean nothing! As symbols, grades mean everything! ‘To support the first part of this argument, OBE advocates point to two realities. One is captured in | Ls the alliterative message in Figure 2.3, which illustrates Grades Are Accumulated grades as an uninterpretable mixtures of incredibly ‘Amalgamations of: dissimilar things, all of which are filtered through the particular perspectives, priorities, and preferences Accomplishments of individual teachers. From an outcome-based Activities perspective, “Accomplishments” is the only one of Assignments the seven factors in Figure 2.3 that begins to conform Attendance to what an outcome is. From a simple systematic Attitudes Perspective, grades are not valid or reliable measures Aptitudes of achievement because no two teachers’ grades mean Averages the same thing! ee The second major reality surrounding grades is illustrated in what are called “The Five Great Tusions | HLT of Achievement” shown in Figure 2.4. These illusions The Five Great center on the belief that scores and numbers actually (CCUSIONS are students’ achievements. of Achievement These great illusions also illustrate that the entire expectations system surrounding student | 1- Everything is worth 100 points! learning and performance is disturbingly low. In most districts the passing standard of 70 percent is i e dramatically below what people like Deming or the | * eee Boy Scouts would define as “quality.” Furthermore, : ; 4. Seventy (or eighty, or nin the chances are very high that most students never ioc ecane earn to do very many things at really high levels of quality because the points system doesn’t encourage | 5-The more points you accumulate, ai a the more achievement you have! or require it. So, rather than grades being objective |_"¢ More achievement you have! | 2. All points are created equal! “32 9 Outcome-Based Educationindicators or measures of achievements the traditional educational system, claims, the combination of these two realities reveals them to be: Uninterpretable symbolic or numeric labels reflecting the subjective judgments of individual teachers about dissimilar, unrelated things that occurred during a specific time period. Criterion-Based Reporting ‘Those who advocate OBE believe that students, parents, and the public deserve something better. Their approach has strong parallels to the criterion-based nature of the merit and honor badge system in the Scouts because it focuses on, records, and reports the actual substance and levels of what students can do at any given point in time. This approach would allow parents and the public to receive five extremely valuable kinds of information on a regular basis: + What the system’s key culminating and enabling outcomes are for all its students. (This establishes the framework on which all curriculum design, formal assessment, credentialing, and reporting will be done.) ‘What the substantive criteria are for each level of performance on those outcomes. (This establishes the actual meaning of performance standards for each outcome.) Where a particular student falls on the range of levels for each outcome on a given reporting date. (This is the cur- rent report of the student's performance levels.) ‘Where that student fell on the range of performance levels on some previous reporting date (This documents the student's progress and improvement on the outcome over time.) ‘Where other similar students fall on the range of performance levels for each outcome. (This provides date on the student's performance relative to that of other students.) 9. What do those implementing OBE find attractive about its cost and effectiveness? While we will develop this point more extensively in Chapter 5, five major points can be summarized here. These benefits usually result from the determined efforts of both formal and informal leaders on the staff to make a difference where it really counts, sometimes at the expense of changing or abandoning long-revered practices and organizational rituals that prove to be unproductive in the face of better options. Purpose and direction, First, OBE gives districts a much better clearer purpose and sense of direction than ever before. This occurs through a process called “Strategic Design,” in which districts and their communities establish a clear mission, a vision Wik Ts There So Much Interest in Outcome-Based Reforms? 2 33of how they will conduct their affairs, a framework of values and principles that guide decision making, a framework of exit outcomes that guide program design and priorities, and a strategic plan for allocating resources and using staff that is consistent with the defined mission, vision, values, and exit outcomes. This process translates directly into the classroom through the clarity of focus and design down principles. More consistency. Second, because of OBE’s purposes, principles, and exit outcomes, there is a much clearer rationale for, and more consistency in, all policy and programmatic decisions that are made. ‘The four principles serve as particularly powerful guides for both decision making and action in the short term and longer term. Increased motivation and morale. Third, student motivation and achievement, as well as staff effectiveness and morale, typically increase well beyond previous experience and expectations. This result in a significant shift in organizational climate, shared sense of empowerment, improved relationships, and heightened expectations for greater success. At times, previously insurmountable problems find ready solutions because of people’s greater willingness to address them openly. Improved school-community relations. Fourth, relations between the school and its community improve as the result of two key things: 1) authentic involvement in the district’s direction-setting process and 2) improved student motivation and achievement—both of which greatly enhance the system’s credibility with its public, ‘These closer ties have mutually reinforcing benefits as communication and confidence build in both directions, Effectiveness worth the cost. Fifth, sound OBE is generally no more expensive to implement day-to-day than less-focused traditional Practices. While a greater percentage of a district’s budget may be needed for staff and-program development under OBE, most districts usually find these funds by saving in other parts of the budget. From a cost/effectiveness point of view, sound OBE implementation is a major benefit to students and to taxpayers. Summary - “Oo What are the most important things to remember about the intense interest being expressed in OBE today? As we proceed to examine outcome-based models and practices in more detail, it is important to keep in mind these five key points about the widespread interest in OBE: 1) OBEembodies the commonsense thinking and practice of effective instructional design and delivery found in highly effective learning systems throughout our society. 2) Outcome-based models respond to a clear need in our society for learning systems that promote rather than constrain the learning opportunities of all students; they all will need to be prepared for the continuous learning and improvement challenges of the Information Age labor market. © 34 0 Outcome-Based Education